ADRIAN FLORIDO, HOST:
Los Angeles and the movies have gone hand in hand since the birth of Hollywood. So many movies set in LA are about the movie industry. There’s “Sunset Boulevard”…
(SOUNDBITE OF FILM, “SUNSET BOULEVARD”)
GLORIA SWANSON: (As Norma Desmond) All right, Mr. DeMille, I’m ready for my closeup.
FLORIDO: …”The Player”…
(SOUNDBITE OF FILM, “THE PLAYER”)
TIM ROBBINS: (As Griffin Mill) Can we talk about something other than Hollywood for a change?
UNIDENTIFIED ACTOR #1: (As character) Yes.
UNIDENTIFIED ACTOR #2: (As character) Yes.
ROBBINS: (As Griffin Mill) We’re educated people.
UNIDENTIFIED ACTOR #3: (As character) Yeah.
FLORIDO: …”La La Land”…
(SOUNDBITE OF FILM, “LA LA LAND”)
RYAN GOSLING: (As Sebastian) So you’re an actress. I thought you looked familiar. Have I seen you in anything?
EMMA STONE: (As Mia) The coffee shop on the Warner Bros lot.
FLORIDO: …And so many more. But today, we want to take a look at LA movies that don’t have anything to do with the studio back lot. For this week’s Cineplexity segment, we are talking about movies about LA that aren’t about the movie industry. Joining us are NPR culture reporter and longtime LA resident Mandalit del Barco and fellow Angelino and NPR deputy culture editor Matteen Mokalla. Welcome to both of you.
MANDALIT DEL BARCO, BYLINE: Thank you.
MATTEEN MOKALLA, BYLINE: Hey. Thanks for having us.
FLORIDO: Mandalit, you know, there are so many different types of LA movies. But what are the different ways that LA is more than just a setting for the movies, but actually becomes a character itself?
DEL BARCO: There are so many. LA’s been a character in the movies from the silent movie era, Laurel and Hardy, the Little Rascals, all the way up to the sci-fi classic “Blade Runner.”
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SEAN YOUNG: (As Rachael) It seems you feel our work is not a benefit to the public.
HARRISON FORD: (As Deckard) Replicants are like any other machine. They’re either a benefit or a hazard.
DEL BARCO: That was supposed to take place in the dystopian future…
FLORIDO: Yeah.
DEL BARCO: …Of 2019, right? And here we are in 2026. We don’t have flying cars, but we do have a lot of Waymos. There are countless cop movies over the years, “Terminator” movies, “Beverly Hills Cop,” “Training Day.”
(SOUNDBITE OF FILM, “TRAINING DAY”)
DENZEL WASHINGTON: (As Alonzo) To protect the sheep, you got to catch the wolf, and it takes a wolf to catch a wolf. You understand?
DEL BARCO: There’re movies that make fun of LA, the cliches of LA. We like to laugh at ourselves, right? Comedy is, like, one of my favorites – “L.A. Story” with Steve Martin.
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ANNE CRAWFORD: (As Sharon) Whatever you do, don’t get dumped in LA. I mean, it’s not like New York where you can meet someone walking down the street.
UNIDENTIFIED ACTOR #4: (As character) I know.
CRAWFORD: (As Sharon) In LA, you practically have to hit someone with your car.
DEL BARCO: There’s one scene where he literally pulls out of his driveway to park next-door, showing how much we don’t like to walk here.
(LAUGHTER)
DEL BARCO: One of my favorite subgenres is the kind of angsty underground LA movies, like “Ghost World,” you know, the unglamorous suburban strip malls…
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TONY KETCHAM: (As Alcoholic Customer) Do you serve beer or any alcohol?
THORA BIRCH: (As Enid) I wish. Actually, you wish. After about five minutes of this movie, you’re going to wish you had 10 beers.
DEL BARCO: …”Boogie Nights” about the porn industry and “Repo Man” filled with punks and slackers…
(SOUNDBITE OF FILM, “REPO MAN”)
HARRY DEAN STANTON: (As Bud) See, an ordinary person spends his life avoiding tense situations. A repo man spends his life getting into tense situations.
DEL BARCO: …One of my favorites from the Cohen brothers, “The Big Lebowski” with Jeff Bridges as…
FLORIDO: Classic.
DEL BARCO: …The ultimate slacker, The Dude.
(SOUNDBITE OF FILM, “THE BIG LEBOWSKI”)
JEFF BRIDGES: (As The Dude) So that’s what you call me, you know? That or His Dudenss (ph) or Duder (ph) or, you know, El Dudorino (ph) if you’re not into the whole brevity thing.
FLORIDO: Matteen, is there a movie for you in particular that is just, like, quintessential Los Angeles?
MOKALLA: There is one that is above and beyond the greatest Los Angeles film I’ve ever seen in my life. And that is Michael Mann’s classic, “Heat.” Now, this is the one that featured Al Pacino, Robert De Niro. It was the first film that they shared a scene together in this diner in Los Angeles. They talk to each other about being, are we just normal guys? And they’re not. One’s an amazing policeman. The other one’s an amazing criminal.
(SOUNDBITE OF FILM, “HEAT”)
ROBERT DE NIRO: (As Neil McCauley) I do what I do best – I take scores. You do what you do best – try to stop guys like me.
AL PACINO: (As Vincent Hanna) So you never wanted a regular type life?
MOKALLA: What makes this an LA film is it’s filmed across the city. I think a lot of people who don’t live in Los Angeles fail to realize the topography of the city, its mountains, its oceans, you know, its colors. And it’s filmed in this kind of grayish blue hue, which adds a coolness to the film, even though it’s called “Heat.” To me, this film is the iconic Los Angeles film.
DEL BARCO: And, you know, there’s a long line of these prime movies in LA going back to the film noir of the 1940s, “Double Indemnity” and “The Big Sleep.”
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LAUREN BACALL: (As Vivian Rutledge) So you’re a private detective. I didn’t know they existed except in books, or else they were greasy little men snooping around hotel corridors.
HUMPHREY BOGART: (As Philip Marlowe) I’m not very tall either.
DEL BARCO: And, you know, there’s something really ugly and beautiful about Los Angeles, I think, and that’s what these films capture – the idea that anything could happen here, that people could become overnight famous in LA for something they did really well or something really horrible.
FLORIDO: You know, I did grow up in Southern California, down in Orange County, just down the freeway. But I have spent a lot of my life living in LA and fell in love with, you know, the tapestry of ethnicities here, races…
DEL BARCO: Right.
FLORIDO: …You know, culture. It’s a global city. Are there any movies that really capture that about the city for you, Mandalit?
DEL BARCO: Yeah. Well, there’re a lot of period dramas like “Devil In A Blue Dress,” how it was set in the ’40s.
(SOUNDBITE OF FILM, “DEVIL IN A BLUE DRESS”)
WASHINGTON: (As Easy Rawlins) ‘Cause even though we had fought a war to keep the world free, the color line in America worked both ways, and even a rich white man like Todd Carter was afraid to cross it.
DEL BARCO: You know, I used to report on street gangs in LA in the 1990s, and there’s – so I think about all those movies like “Boyz N The Hood” and “Straight Outta Compton.”
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O’SHEA JACKSON JR: (As Ice Cube) We gave the people truth.
MATT CORBOY: (As Journalist) Yeah, but your songs, they glamorize the lifestyle of gangs, guns, drugs.
JACKSON: (As Ice Cube) Our art is a reflection of our reality.
DEL BARCO: And there are so many movies or mainly the only movies about Latinos. And we’re here in LA. We make up half – nearly half of Angelinos, you know? There’s “Born In East L.A.,” the comedy with Cheech Marin…
FLORIDO: Great one.
DEL BARCO: …”Stand And Deliver” that was set in a high school in East LA.
(SOUNDBITE OF FILM, “STAND AND DELIVER”)
EDWARD JAMES OLMOS: (As Jaime Escalante) This is basic math, but basic math is too easy for you burros. So I’m going to teach you algebra because I’m the champ.
DEL BARCO: “Real Women Have Curves” – you know, America Ferrera and her mom worked in a garment factory in downtown LA.
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LUPE ONTIVEROS: (As Carmen Garcia) Aren’t you embarrassed?
AMERICA FERRERA: (As Ana Garcia) Of what?
ONTIVEROS: (As Carmen Garcia) Look at you. You look awful.
FERRERA: (As Ana Garcia) Mama, I happen to like myself.
INGRID OLIU: (As Estela Garcia) Right on, sister.
FLORIDO: Or Gregory Nava’s “Mi Familia,” “My Family,” with…
DEL BARCO: Absolutely. That’s a classic. That takes place from – a family’s journey over the generations from Mexico to Los Angeles.
FLORIDO: And one of the early characters in that movie is a man named El Californio who, before he dies, says that he wants on his tombstone an engraving saying that when he was born, this was Mexico, and wherever I am buried will continue to be Mexico. Are there still good movies being made about Los Angeles today?
DEL BARCO: Well, you know, I see a lot of TV shows being made – well, newer TV shows like “Hacks” and “The Studio.” Those are great shows. “I Love LA,” that’s another one. But the problem is that in the last few years, a lot of productions have moved away from Los Angeles.
FLORIDO: Yeah.
DEL BARCO: You know, there’s places that are much cheaper to film, and they get tax credits. You know, people have moved first to Atlanta, New York…
FLORIDO: New Mexico.
DEL BARCO: …Texas, New Mexico, but then also Canada, Vancouver, the U.K. So they’re starting to try to do that again here in California and other places. And there’s even talk of having a national film tax credit, just to get films to come back to the U.S. and specifically back to Hollywood. I think Hollywood now is more of a state of mind, or, you know, it’s an industry. It’s not a place anymore.
FLORIDO: Yeah.
DEL BARCO: But they’re trying to get it back to Hollywood where it was created, where Hollywood started.
MOKALLA: You know, and Mandalit is completely right. It’s – it is a struggle. You know, we’ve spoken to a lot of filmmakers who would love to make films in LA, and it doesn’t always happen. But I would be remiss if I didn’t give a shoutout to a wonderful film from last year, “Good Fortune,” which was directed by the actor and the comedian Aziz Ansari.
(SOUNDBITE OF FILM, “GOOD FORTUNE”)
AZIZ ANSARI: (As Arj) I did everything I was supposed to do, and nothing’s working out.
KEANU REEVES: (As Gabriel) I’m not really supposed to be doing this. I’m normally only in charge of saving people from texting and driving.
ANSARI: (As Arj) Wait, you’re telling me I have a budget guardian angel?
MOKALLA: It stars Aziz Ansari, Seth Rogan, Keke Palmer, Sandra Oh and the inimitable Keanu Reeves. This movie was filmed all across LA in Los Feliz, Eagle Rock, Cypress Park even gets a little shoutout in this film.
DEL BARCO: All the Eastside.
MOKALLA: All the Eastside.
FLORIDO: I remember when those were not considered Eastside neighborhoods, yeah.
(LAUGHTER)
MOKALLA: That’s right. You know, and this is one of those films that talks about a lot of the economic inequality in the city. And really, you know, Aziz Ansari called it his love letter to Los Angeles, and I hope more people go out and see it. It has a wonderful cast. And, you know, if you like the great Wim Wenders film “Wings Of Desire,” this is a – not quite “Wings Of Desire,” but a comedic take on angels coming in to give an assist now and then.
FLORIDO: Well, I’ve been speaking with NPR’s Mandalit del Barco and Matteen Mokalla about movies about Los Angeles. Thanks for joining us.
DEL BARCO: Thank you.
MOKALLA: Thank you.
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